


Sayorin☆Dreaming

by Symantra



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Embarrassment, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, One Shot, Sayo Stans Aya, Wota!Sayo, hina teaches sayo the dark arts of idol culture, sayo has an aya happi, shuwashuwa, wotagei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25851241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Symantra/pseuds/Symantra
Summary: Sayo and Aya are going steady, but Sayo is a bit worried that her perfectionist streak is rubbing off on her girlfriend in a bad way.In her quest to fix that, she ends up learning what her girlfriend goes through on the daily, and she learns from Hina what not to do when she reaches absolute, maximum hype.
Relationships: Hikawa Sayo/Maruyama Aya
Comments: 4
Kudos: 77
Collections: Free Story Sundays





	Sayorin☆Dreaming

“Ah, if it isn’t Sayo-chan. Good afternoon.”

A golden retriever with a red handkerchief padded up to Sayo and looked up at her expectantly. Chisato tipped her sun hat. Sayo, hatless, nodded back.

“Good afternoon Shirasagi-san,” she returned the greeting before crouching down to Leon’s level and giving him a pat on the head and scratch under the chin. “And hello there Leon. You look very happy today. That’s good.”

“Bork!”

Sayo glanced at Chisato, squinting in the sunlight. “Are you in a hurry today, Shirasagi-san?” she asked, not for the first time.

Chisato gave her the faintest of smiles and shook her head, which was Sayo’s cue to hold her up to play with Leon.

“I see. It is a holiday after all,” Sayo commented somewhat idly, hands buried in golden fur.

Leon practically melted under her touch and flopped onto his side, raising his head only for optimal headpat efficiency. “There’s a good boy,” she murmured, smoothing the fur on his side.

Chisato walked over and put the leash down to join Sayo in showering Leon with affection.

“It’s come to my attention,” she began, stroking Leon’s cheek, “That you and Aya have started dating. Is that right?”

Sayo’s hand jerked away from Leon. How casually Chisato had brought it up pushed a dozen thoughts into her head. How did she know? Did Aya tell her? Why not just say it was Aya if that was the case? Was Sayo about to be tested? Destroyed?

“Y-yes. That is correct,” she stammered, wishing she could have controlled her voice better. Few things put her on edge like this, but having a vague awareness of Chisato’s reputation and being caught off guard stripped away her gracefulness.

She hoped Chisato wouldn’t notice, but hardly anything got past her—and it was impossible to tell what she was thinking. Her facial expressions belied nothing but the existence of absolute composure.

“Relax, I haven’t any intention of propagating information about your personal lives. That wouldn’t be good for Aya-chan’s career, now would it?”

Sayo smiled nervously.

“How have things been going with her?”

Sayo rubbed Leon’s belly as she thought of how to reply. Chisato was a good person to have as a listener, no? She didn’t seem the type to make assumptions and jump to a conclusion. Sayo decided to go right to the point.

“I’m a bit worried I’ve given Maruyama-san the wrong idea about our relationship,” she admitted.

Chisato cupped Leon’s chin and tilted his head playfully, making his tongue loll out. “The wrong idea?”

“I visited her at her house the other day, and in response to something I said to her, she told me she would ‘do her best not to disappoint,’” Sayo quoted. “Her saying that made me reflect on what I want from our relationship. It feels like my own failure if I’ve given her extra stress by pushing her to impress me or avoid disappointing me.”

“Interesting.” Chisato nodded along. “What was it that you said to her, by chance?”

Sayo hesitated. She remembered the words very clearly, along with Aya’s reaction. What happened after that was somewhat of a haze, but she knew for sure she could never speak of it to anyone. To say the least, they had exchanged more than just two lines that night.

Chisato urged her a bit with a look. Tipping her head down to hide her cheeks, Sayo mumbled:

“I will live up to everything you deserve and everything you desire.”

Even though the words were clearly not meant for her, Chisato’s face colored a bit. Both of her eyebrows went up. “Well, no wonder. It sounds like you’re just as concerned about living up to her expectations as she is to yours. And... I’m sure she’ll be remembering that for a long time.”

Sayo felt pink seep away from her face. “My fear is that I’ve given her the idea,” she sighed. “I don’t want her feeling that she has to meet a certain level of excellence to have my faith. I’ve been thinking of a way to explain to her that my feelings are unconditional.”

Leon wagged his tail and rolled onto his back, lavishing all the attention he was getting. Chisato gave him a circular belly rub. “Perhaps you’re overthinking things. The best thing to do is also the simplest thing. Just tell her—”

“ONEE-CHAAAAN! CHISATO-CHAAAAN!”

“Oh god,” Sayo and Chisato both groaned at the same time.

Hina ran across the street, dodging a moving car, and bounded up to them, immediately dropping down to pat Leon on the head. “Hello Leon. I see you’re in good company.”

“Awoo.” He howled softly, vibrating at maximum comf.

Sayo let go of Leon and gave Hina a dubious look. “Why are you here, Hina?”

“I was walking just over there, then I saw you two and came over! Are you talking about Aya-chan?”

“How in the world did you know we were—” Sayo stopped and gave up with a sigh. “We were.”

Hina laughed. “Nice! Sometimes I just get a feeling, you know? It’s usually right, so I always check! It’s kinda cool actually.”

Bewilderment was all Sayo could glean from Chisato’s face. Despite being in a band with Hina, she had a long way to go until she was ready to embrace the lunacy that was Hina Hikawa.

Sayo scratched Leon behind the ears. “Ignoring the fact that you might have literal ESP, what do you want?”

Hina gave Leon a vigorous belly rub. “Well, you wanna show your love and support for Aya-chan, right? The way you do that is either merch or calls!”

“Calls?” Sayo shifted her jaw. “I have her number, so I could—”

“No, not that type of call. The stuff idol fans yell at concerts when they get all _hooooryaaaahhhh!_ You know what I’m talking about?”

Sayo suddenly had a visceral reliving of her first experience at a Pastel*Palettes concert. Being in that audience, not understanding anything that was happening, surrounded by delirious chanting—she snapped back to the present in a cold sweat.

“In what ways can such a thing convey love and support?” she asked sharply. “Are they not simply troublesome?”

Chisato cut in, speaking hastily to get her words in before Hina could. “They can be, but when they’re coordinated they can be very impactful, but really it depends on the timing as well as the—”

“Nah, don’t worry about that!” Hina waved her arm. “Pastel*Palettes’ lives are pretty good with calls, and Aya loves it when people do calls for her! Like, she _hyahhh~_ loves it!”

Sayo ruminated on the idea. Everything Hina was saying contradicted her own experience, but Hina was also more experienced in idol culture than she was. At Roselia lives, nobody in the crowd spoke (and certainly didn’t shout) unless encouraged. That was simply proper etiquette for an audience—or so she had thought until seeing Aya sob her heart out to the most rabid fans Sayo had ever known.

“Okay, but how would participating in calls help me communicate anything specific to Maruyama-san?”

Hina waggled her finger, pointing to the secrets of the cosmos that Sayo couldn’t yet see.

“It’s like, in your energy! All the energy you put into your calls resounds and reaches us. That’s how we know our fans love us! Sometimes it’s because they’re getting really hyped up, other times it’s because they want to help us get all hyped up! If you put everything you’ve got into your calls, Aya-chan’s gonna hear it! You won’t even need words!”

Sayo crossed her arms, taking her hands away from Leon, for which she received a disappointed whine. As skeptical as she was about Hina’s words, something about the idea had an allure to it, a faint luster to draw her in. Learning more about Pastel*Palettes would let her better understand Aya’s life, which would help in their relationship.

Maybe Hina had a point.

“Sayo, please! I can teach you!” Hina bounced forward, clasping her hands in the way she always did when she begged for something. “Let me, let me! At our live show tomorrow we’re doing Shuwarin☆Dreaming, and the calls in that song are _super_ Ayacore. I can teach you all of them! She’s gonna love it! And you.”

Sayo breathed in. Listening to Hina was almost always a bad idea. But she was a part of Pastel*Palettes. And what she was saying kind of made sense; proving her devotion at a concert could help solidify Aya’s confidence in her.

“Okay,” she said, exhaling. “Please teach me some of the calls. But you’d better not be messing with me.”

Chisato’s eyebrows were knit, and she rubbed her fingers against her cheek, but when she eventually opened her mouth, it was to vouch for Hina. “Nothing Hina has told you has been incorrect. Though, I’m reluctant to say it’s all true...”

“See? Chisato-chan totally approves!” Hina winked at them both. “I’ll teach you the calls tonight, and you can use them at the concert tomorrow! Oh yeah, we’re doing Wonderland Girl too! Can I teach you my calls so you can use them for me? Please?” Hina’s eyes sparkled. “Please, please? I’ll even teach you a special call to use when you reach MAXIMUM hype!”

“H-Hina, one step at a time!” Sayo held out her hand, already getting a sinking feeling in her gut. This was going to be overwhelming. “I don’t mind learning your calls eventually, but please teach me Maruyama-san’s first.”

“Fine, fine. You got it, dude!”

Chisato looked at Sayo, her expression pinched.

“I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, Sayo-chan,” she said.

Sayo sighed.

“I hope so too.”

* * *

Glowsticks scattered the darkness of the venue, phasing in and out of sight as people in the crowd murmured and shifted. Aya’s gaze flicked from light to light, trying to make out the faces surrounding each one. She caught a glimpse of a familiar, minty blue—or at least she thought she did, several times.

“Do you think she’s here?” she whispered to Chisato, behind her.

Chisato came over and stooped to peer past the curtain into the sliver of the crowd that was visible from Aya’s hiding spot. “If she is, I can’t see her from here.”

Aya let go of the curtain and stood up. Her hands were trembling, and she had to pace through the backstage area just to keep herself moving.

“Aah, I hope she is! But at the same time, I hope she’s not! Seeing her in the crowd would make me really happy, but at the same time I’d probably get nervous and stumble over all my lines. Geez, what am I gonna do?”

Chisato watched her for a bit, then touched her on the shoulder.

“Treat it like a normal performance,” she told her. “Do what you always do: the best you’ve got.”

Aya gulped and nodded. Chisato gave her a smile.

“Plus, it’s more normal for you to make a mistake than it is for you to not make one.” Chisato’s hand moved to her mouth in a simper. “You wouldn’t want to show Sayo-chan a side of you that isn’t honest, would you now?”

“Come onnnn!” Puffing out her cheeks, Aya groaned and turned away from Chisato. “You’re so mean. But, you’re kinda right too. I’ll just give it my all like I always do!”

Originally, Sayo had only been in the crowd to support her sister. Aya hadn’t even seen her the first two or three times she had shown up.

But that had been before Aya had gotten a good look at her.

Sayo was really, really attractive. Gorgeous, well-kept hair, grown out to a length that made Aya jealous. Sharp eyes that could turn so, so soft, it had to be a crime. A sense of fashion that was less clothes-on-a-girl than it was girl-in-clothes.

How they had gotten together, even Aya wasn’t quite sure. A combination of occasional eye contact, coming over to Hina’s house with ulterior motives, good luck, and time had gotten Sayo’s eyes to shift more toward Aya until they eventually ended up going out on a date. Despite having been a little intimidating at first, Sayo was as cool as she came across as and sweeter than she seemed.

Maya’s voice startled her out of her daydream. “Okay guys, it’s time to go!”

Pastel*Palettes’ members congregated in a huddle around Aya. She looked at each of them in turn—Maya, who let slip her signature laugh. Eve, whose serious bushido expression broke easily into a grin. Hina, who winked at her in a way Aya once thought was flirtatious but now knew was just Hina being Hina. Chisato, who matched her gaze with unreadable eyes.

“Alright!” Aya put her hand down, and they swiftly covered it with their own. “Let’s put on a good show!”

She lifted her hand, pushing their hands into the air, and they cheered with her and headed onstage. A roar from the crowd greeted them, and just as planned, Aya began the show.

“Hello everyone! A streak of color from the mountain’s ring, I’m Aya Maruyama! Thank you all so much for coming today!”

And, as she was going about her warm-up act, she saw Sayo.

Standing in the front row, she was very distinct, even though she was all the way on the left side of the stage. Her hair was done up in a high ponytail over a white headband that had an Aya-colored Pastel*Palettes logo in the middle of it. In her hands, she clutched two pink glowsticks in a way that screamed “devoted fan and ready to stan.”

She was even wearing a happi. How did she have all that merch? How had Aya not known?

They locked eyes for a second, and Sayo smiled.

Aya nearly forgot the rest of her lines, but she stumbled through it. Then someone in the backstage crew trained the spotlights on her, which was the cue to start Shuwarin☆Dreaming.

She opened her chest and started to sing, putting everything she had into her performance—not just because Sayo was there (though that added quite a bit to her motivation) but to prove to Chisato, and the world, that she could keep her composure at a time like this.

The song started alright. Her bandmates instruments sounded crisp and clear, and she felt like she nailed every note.

“ _I’ll pour you a drink! To refresh you! Bubbling cider~”_

Pink lightsticks waved in the crowd as a bunch of people shouted a call right before the next line—

“Pretty in pink, Aya Maruyama!” One voice among them, one of the loudest, ricocheted through her head.

 _Oh my god, was that Sayo?_ It had come from her right, where Sayo was. Her voice cracked a little, but she kept on singing with a small glance toward Sayo. By then, the call was already over, but Sayo had her lightsticks in the air.

“ _Its taste and color are like happiness, and it makes me smile! To the sky, it’s time to fly, and find magic for a while!”_

The fans got ready again, glowsticks poised.

“You’re my number one! Ayaaaa!” There it was. She knew that voice. It was definitely Sayo’s.

 _Oh my god. Sayo knows the calls?_ Aya almost missed her pose, going doubletime into a spin just to keep up with the pace of the song.

“ _These good feelings, overflow! This mystery makes my heart beat beat beat, and slowly become_ _sweet—shuwashuwa, dream-dreaming, yay!”_

One fan’s voice, not Sayo’s, rose from the crowd priming the rest. “Ah, let’s go!

“Aya’s so cute! Aya’s super cute! She’s mega ultra super cute, Aya Maruyama!” Aya was able to sneak a glance at Sayo during the call, and good god was she shouting. Glowsticks up in the air, lips apart, a powerful energy radiating from her very being—she was going wild.

These were words she had never thought she would hear from Sayo, not in a hundred years. And Sayo had said a lot of things to her in the months they had been dating.

Her face burned as she carried on, trying her best to focus on the music.

“ _The source of these good feelings, can you please show me the place from where they came? Oh please, please don’t be mean~ shuwashuwa, dream-dreaming, yay!”_

The moment her line ended, right as Eve was about to lead them into the instrumental, one lone voice made not only Aya’s head but everyone’s on stage snap to the right.

“YEAH TIGER!!!” screamed Sayo Hikawa at the top of her voice, loud enough for every person in the venue to hear.

Aya choked and totally forgot the little spin and wink she had planned for the crowd. She heard Hina burst into laughter behind her and Chisato say something under her breath.

Somehow, she managed to finish the song and the concert. But she tripped over her tongue at least half a dozen more times, and she was so flushed one of her bandmates—she couldn’t even recall who—had to make a joke about it being too hot inside the venue.

As they launched into Wonderland Girl, there were no more calls from the far left side. Having drawn quite a lot of attention to herself, Sayo had shrunk down and consigned herself to waving her glowsticks quietly.

They were going to have a lot to talk about tonight.

* * *

The cushions of her girlfriend’s couch weren’t cushy enough to sink into and never come out of. Sayo rocked slightly, cupping her cheek with a clawed hand.

“Please let me die,” she mumbled, not for the first time that evening. “I knew I shouldn’t have believed her. What was I thinking?”

Of course yelling at the top of her lungs during the middle of a concert was a bad idea. But Hina had somehow convinced her it was a totally normal thing to do at a Pastel*Palettes live. During the performance, she had been so focused on her feelings reaching Aya that her adrenaline had peaked, her sense of control had waned, and she had just lost it.

She felt like a fool.

“That’s the last time I take advice from Hina without fact-checking with someone else. I should have known she’d play a trick on me somehow.” She smashed face into palm, groaning. “Ughhhh.”

Aya, who had been holding her while she mourned the death of her dignity, touched Sayo’s hand and lowered it away from her face. “There there,” she said, rubbing her wrist gently. “It’s not that bad, Sayo-chan. This happens more often than you think. People don’t really mind. As long as you don’t do it all the time, no one will hold it against you.”

Sayo grimaced. “The idea of being seen at another concert after what happened today causes me physical pain. Didn’t you say idol fans have a long memory?”

“I,” Aya started, hesitated, and eventually finished, “I did, yeah. They really don’t forget much.”

Sayo watched the television screen for a little while. It was showing a movie, though she wasn’t sure what was going on at all. Something about a virtual world and a guy who was really good at math and a hacker that had access to all of cyberspace. Aya had just turned it on to a random program while Sayo had been busy regretting her existence.

“Well, she did teach you the calls correctly.” Aya squeezed her hand. “And you did them all really well! I could hear your voice every time. It made me really happy.”

“That is true,” Sayo conceded, sighing again. “Well, at least some good came of this entire turn of events.”

She thought about how Hina had doubled over with laughter as soon as they had met up after the concert. Between gasping for air and cackling her heart out, she had “congratulated” Sayo and left her and Aya to walk home, embarrassed.

“ _Ahahaha, that was so good! Aya wouldn’t stop blushing the whole time! Great job, Sis!”_

Aya squeezed her hand again, and Sayo tightened her grip too. “I never expected you would bother learning the calls for our shows. So when I heard you in the crowd, it was like a silly dream coming true. Like, ‘this can’t be happening!’ You know what I mean?”

Sayo nodded. Aya’s attention left her for a moment so she could reach for a bottle of water on the table. Sayo resisted the temptation to move with her, to stay glued to her side so they wouldn’t lose any contact.

“Like, the fact you learned the calls and came to do them for me, that made me feel really warm.” Aya leaned into the hug a bit, emphasizing her point. “You’ve been coming to Pasupa concerts for a while now though, right? What made you want to learn the calls all of a sudden?”

Sayo bit her bottom lip for a few seconds. Aya’s hand squeezed her shoulder, moving down her arm to her waist in a persuasive cuddle.

“Mainly, I was looking for a way to express my feelings in a way that couldn’t be misunderstood.” Aya tilted her head. “One of our conversations left me worried that you thought there were—how should I put it? Stakes in our relationship. I was in conversation with Shirasagi-san when Hina came along, and well, you know the rest.”

“Hold on.” Aya moved her head forward so she could be in Sayo’s field of vision. “What do you mean by stakes?”

Sayo recounted the conversation she had shared with Chisato. “It sounded as if you were implying you could disappoint me somehow. As if you were making up conditions to fulfill so that our relationship could succeed. I’ve never felt that way, and I was afraid I had given you that idea.”

“Ohhhh.”

Aya was silent for a moment.

“I didn’t mean to make you feel that way,” she whispered after a while. Then she raised her voice in a panic. “That is, um, I definitely meant what I said! About not wanting to disappoint you. But making you worry wasn’t what I wanted. Oh no, ah, um—just, I’m so sorry, Sayo-chan. I like what we have, and I want it to stay this way, but I don’t want to make trouble for you.”

Sayo felt Aya release her shoulder. But before her arm could slip away over the back of the sofa, Sayo reached up, grabbed her hand, and tugged her back.

“I’m the one who should apologize,” she murmured, working her fingers through Aya’s. “I probably made you think, with my work ethic and my speech patterns, that I was expecting a lot of you. Really, all I care about is that we’re content with ourselves and each other.”

Aya relaxed, as if she had been holding her breath and had finally released it. Sayo pulled her in tight, so that she accidentally got a face full of Aya’s pink hair. A sweet fragrance caressed her senses.

“From the beginning, I was thinking, ‘I’ve gotta be worthy for Sayo-chan.’ I just didn’t wanna let you down, you know?” After a second or two, Aya put her head on Sayo’s shoulder. “You’re such a hard worker that I figured I needed to keep up with you. Keep working hard for everything while also making sure to give my perfect girlfriend the best side of me.”

“I’m not perfect,” Sayo said, gripping her hand tightly. “If you’re okay with that, I don’t mind helping you feel worthy once in a while. Because you are.”

“Sayo-chan,” Aya breathed her name and buried her face in her shoulder. “You’re gonna make me cry, oh no.”

Their fingers never unlocked until the movie was long over.


End file.
